Balthasar Jenichen made this portrait of artist and printmaker Virgil Solis in the year of Solis's death. Jenichen was a journeyman printer and painter who worked in Solis' workshop and took over the business after his master's death. This image depicts Solis as an engraver. He is holding a burin and a metal plate engraved with a design similar to playing cards that he issued. In front of him on the bench are his tools, including a burin, a sharpening stone and a double-ended etching needle.

Though cut off from this print, an epitaph below found on other examples reads like an advert. It was perhaps used as such since the workshop continued to use Solis' name and his plates. The inscription describes Solis' various activities; engraving, etching and drawing for woodcuts, as well as illuminating and painting.

Physical description

A small engraving, showing a bearded man engraving with engraving tools on a workbench including two burins (one held in his hand), a double-ended etching needle and a sharpening stone. Text originally below has been cut off from this impression.

Place of Origin

Nuremberg, Germany (made)

Date

1562 (made)

Artist/maker

Jenichen, Balthasar (print-maker)

Materials and Techniques

Engraving

Marks and inscriptions

'B. I.'
[two monograms for V.S.}

Dimensions

Height: 10 cm, Width: 7.6 cm

Descriptive line

A portrait of the 16th century printmaker, Virgil Solis, by Balthasar Jenichen, Nuremberg, 1562 .

Portrait of Virgil Solis, with two escutcheons and two monograms used by the Master. (ANDRESEN und WEIGEL: Der Deutsche Peintre-Graveur, II, 1865, p. 135, No. 42) A copy of the plate was engraved for his "Collection of Facsimiles, 1828," by Ottley, who attributed the original to B. Jamnitzer.
Signed B.I.Engraving.
E.1234-1926'